10/30/15 Confusion Reigns

By now they have drawn quite a large crowd. The Pharisees don’t know what to make of this latest teaching of Jesus, and neither, it seems, do the rest of the Jews who are standing there listening. Fierce debates break out all over the crowd. “He’s insane!” “He’s a prophet!” “He is Satan incarnate, get away from Him and don’t listen to anything He says!” “He’s the Messiah!” “He heals on the Sabbath and breaks all kinds of other laws. He can’t be from God!” “But nobody has ever healed anyone who was born blind. How can He have done that unless He is from God? No demon could do that!” Back and forth the arguments flew, louder and more forcefully with each round. In the midst of the furor, Jesus beckons to His apostles and His newer followers – including the formerly blind man of the hour – and they quietly slip away from the crowd.